Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to more than 11 years in a US federal prison for conning investors and endangering patients while peddling a bogus blood-testing technology.
The 38-year-old was convicted by a Californian jury on three counts of investor fraud and one count of conspiracy in January. She was jailed for 135 months.
Prosecutors were also seeking $804m (£675m) in compensation from Holmes.
The amount covers most of the nearly $1bn (£840m) she raised from a list of sophisticated investors that included software magnate Larry Ellison, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and the Walton family behind Walmart.
Prosecutors had branded Holmes’ crimes “among the most substantial white collar offences Silicon Valley or any other district has seen”.
Image: In her defence, Holmes said she believed her statements were accurate at the time. Pic: AP
Her legal team had urged the judge to be lenient and not make their client a “martyr to public passion”.
The sentence imposed by US District Judge Edward Davila was shorter than the 15-year penalty requested by federal prosecutors, but far tougher than the leniency her legal team sought for the mother of a year-old son with another child on the way.
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The judge said Theranos had employed “misrepresentations, hubris and just plain lies”.
Prosecutors said Holmes misrepresented Theranos’ technology and finances, including by claiming its miniaturised blood testing machine was able to run an array of tests from a few drops of blood.
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The company secretly relied on conventional machines from other companies to run patients’ tests, prosecutors said.
Image: The now-defunct firm was once valued at $9bn (£7.5bn). Pic: AP
Once valued at $9bn (£7.5bn), the now-defunct Theranos Inc promised to revolutionise how patients received diagnoses by replacing traditional labs with small machines designed for use in homes, pharmacies and even on the battlefield.
Forbes dubbed Holmes the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire in 2014, when she was 30 and her stake in Theranos was worth $4.5bn (£3.8bn).
But the start-up collapsed after a series of articles in the Wall Street Journal in 2015 questioned its technology.
At trial, prosecutors said Holmes engaged in fraud by lying to investors about Theranos’ technology and finances rather than allowing the company to fail.
Holmes testified in her own defence, saying she believed her statements were accurate at the time.
Image: The 38-year-old’s partner, Billy Evans, has urged the judge to be lenient. Pic: AP
‘Played for the fool’
Though she was convicted on three counts, Holmes was acquitted on four other counts alleging she defrauded patients, who paid for Theranos tests.
The judge in the case, Edward Davila, has previously denied Holmes’ requests to overturn her convictions, saying they were supported by the evidence at trial.
Following her sentencing, Holmes can appeal.
While courting investors, Holmes put together a high-powered Theranos board that included former US defence secretary James Mattis, who testified against her during her trial, and two former US secretaries of state, Henry Kissinger and the late George Shultz, whose son submitted a statement criticising Holmes for fabricating a scheme that played Shultz “for the fool”.
About 10,000 pages of records related to the assassination of Robert F Kennedy (RFK) nearly 60 years ago have been released publicly for the first time.
The senator, who was the brother of US president John F Kennedy (JFK), was shot dead at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on 6 June 1968, moments after giving his victory speech for winning California’s Democratic presidential primary.
His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison.
RFK’s assassination, much like his brother’s in 1963, has been the subject of much speculation.
His son, Robert F Kennedy Jr, previously said he believed his father was killed by multiple gunmen, an assertion that contradicts official accounts.
After the documents were released on Friday, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said they would “shine a long-overdue light on the truth”.
Many files related to the senator’s assassination had already been released, but the ones posted to the US National Archives and Records Administration on Friday had not been digitised and sat for decades in storage facilities maintained by the federal government.
The move is a continuation of the release of historic withheld files ordered by US President Donald Trump, in an apparent bid to prove the transparency of his administration.
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Trump announcing release of JFK files in March
It started when he signed an executive order back in January for the release of thousands of files about JFK’s assassination, many of which were made public in March.
The files gave readers more details about the US’s covert operations during the Cold War-era, but did not lend legitimacy to any of the many conspiracy theories surrounding the former president’s death.
RFK Jr, who is also Mr Trump’s health secretary, commended the president and Ms Gabbard for their “courage” and “dogged efforts” to release the files.
“Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government,” he said in a statement.
In a statement, Ms Gabbard said: “Nearly 60 years after the tragic assassination of senator Robert F Kennedy, the American people will, for the first time, have the opportunity to review the federal government’s investigation thanks to the leadership of president Trump.”
Lawyers for RFK’s killer have been pushing for his release for decades, saying he is unlikely to reoffend or pose a danger to society.
A parole board deemed Sirhan suitable for release in 2022, but California governor Gavin Newsom rejected the decision in 2022, keeping him in state prison.
A different panel denied him release in 2023, saying he still lacked insight into what caused him to shoot RFK.
Buckingham Palace previously only said the visit would happen “when diaries allow”, but Mr Trump told reporters on Thursday: “I think they are setting a date for September.”
“I don’t know how it can be bigger than the last one,” he said.
“The last one was incredible, but they say the next one will be even more important.”
Image: Sir Keir Starmer handed Trump the invite earlier this year. Pic: PA
Mr Trump will become the only elected political leader in modern times to be invited to two state visits by a British monarch.
The president called the UK a “great country” in his comments at the White House on Thursday and said it was “an honour to be a friend of King Charles and the family, William”.
His first state visit was in 2019, when he was hosted by the late Queen.
Second-term US presidents who have already made a state visit usually get tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama.
Image: The president was hosted by the Queen in June 2019. Pic: Reuters
But Mr Trump is set to get all the pomp and ceremony laid on again in his honour – with another state banquet likely at Buckingham Palace.
The Royal Family‘s soft power diplomacy is viewed as a way of currying favour with the president, who’s known for his love of the monarchy and links to the UK through his mother, who was born on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.
It comes as the government seeks an economic deal with the US, in the hope of potentially lessening the impact of the president’s tariffs.
Four people are in hospital as police deal with an active shooter on a university campus in Florida.
Videos showed people running through traffic, fleeing the scene, around the time of the shooting at the student union at Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee.
Local police were “on the scene or on the way”, according to an alert sent out by the school and students have been told to “shelter in place”.
The FBI is also said to be responding to the incident.
Image: Florida State University students wait for news amid an active shooter incident at the school.
Pic: AP/Kate Payne
In a statement, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said it was “actively receiving and caring for patients” from the incident.
“At this time, details are still unfolding, and we do not yet have specific information to share. However, we want to assure the community that our teams are fully mobilised and prepared to provide the highest level of care and support to all those affected,” it added.
President Donald Trump said he was fully briefed on the incident and described it as “a shame”.
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He added: “It’s a horrible thing. Horrible that things like this take place.”
Florida governor Ron DeSantis, in a statement posted on X, said: “Our prayers are with our FSU family and state law enforcement is actively responding.”
Ambulances, fire trucks and police vehicles raced to the campus around midday local time (5pm UK time) on Thursday.
As students streamed away from the area of the student union in their hundreds, some were visibly emotional and others were glued to their phones.
Dozens later gathered near the university’s music school, waiting for news.
Florida State University student Daniella Streety told NBC News of the chaos that unfolded at the scene.
She remained on lockdown in a campus building and said: “I did see them carry out one student in what looked like on a stretcher and kept them in the road until an ambulance was able to pick them up.”
Joshua Sirmans, 20, was in the university’s main library when he said alarms began going off warning of an active shooter.
Police escorted him and other students out of the library with their hands over their heads, he said.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.